I have a different view, maybe than some others, on the topic of the role of provincial government ‘communications’ activities. It seems to me that the bulk of the PR/GR work done by government spinners is targeted at New Brunswickers. Ensuring, for example, that we understand how the provincial government is working to make New Brunswick a better place.
I would tweak that a bit. In my worldview, government communications should be about ensuring that New Brunswick is mentioned in publications such as this. In working to promote New Brunswick’s image outside the province rather than stage managing the message inside.
The former would support efforts to attract investment, trade and people. The latter is, in my opinion primarily politically motivated and should not be a primary focus of a government department.
Anyway, it would seem much more efficacious to have New Brunswickers read about their province in Business Week magazine and be impressed rather than going directly to New Brunswickers with messaging and hoping they are impressed by the spin.
The article is about the best outsoucing cities and includes Boise, Winnipeg, Calgary, as well as site in Europe, South America and Asia. New Brunswick really needs to be in stuff like this. We really need to be positioned as a next level outsourcing destination. We cornered the market – almost – on customer contact centres. We need to parlay that effort into higher end outsourcing.
Exactly. I find most of the government’s communications to be PR directed at New Brunswickers and little if any of it directed externally. I posted about that a while ago (Talking amongst ourselves in New Brunswick), although the post was more about people than business. But the idea is the same. What is the province doing about communicating to the outside world what New Brunswick is, what our advantages are?
What communications I do see, the internally focused PR, strikes me as expensive yet anemic, which I think is due to political handcuffs that require it to be safe.
How can a business consider New Brunswick if they aren’t even aware we exist?
How can a business consider New Brunswick if they aren’t even aware we exist?
Bill is correct. Trade mission are good for this, but they must establish a clear objective (rigid set of goals). I think you, David, have also discussed setting up satellite offices in China, India and in parts of Europe to promote trade and investment. Not sure if this is being done currently through BNB or any other gov’t bureaucracy?